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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

The 15 Most Decisive Battles of the World

There is a book which called “The Fifteen Decisive Battles
of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo” by Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy; which I
have not read; referenced in the Merle Miller oral biography of Harry Truman, “Plain
Speaking”. The book comes up when a friend of the former President recounts the
15 books which Truman recommended to him when the friend asked about how he should
go about becoming better-rounded. And; as with most things connected to Truman;
I was immediately interested in it. That was over 20 years ago and I still
haven’t read it. It was written in 1851.

The other day I was thinking about the book and what it
might hold within that would be applicable to today’s world. So, I went to
Wikipedia for a brief summary of the book and the list of the battles
themselves. As a result I feel as if I have been deprived of an education; in
that I haven’t even heard of a good third of these battles, and certainly none
of them were taught in high school. And yet, looking over the list and the
attendant causes of these major events in history, I can easily see that war;
at least the reasons behind them; have not really changed much over the
thousands of years that they have been waged.

Mostly the battles were the result of tribal differences,
land rights, religion and family squabbles gone way out of control. From the
Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC; which was primarily a war about the Persian subjugation
of the entire known world; to our own Second World War; global domination has
been a recurrent theme. So have family squabbles; as evidenced by the Battle of
the Metaurus in 207 BC between Rome and Carthage, which were both controlled by
2 families who could not settle their differences. We had World War One, a
conflict in which all the crowned heads of Europe were cousins.

If you want something more contemporary; let’s say the attempted
Conquest of the Western World by Islam; then just look to the Battle of Tours
in 732 AD. Sometimes referred to as the Battle of Poitiers, this was the final
battle of the crusade in which Charles Martel blocked the Arab Conquest of
Western Europe. That struggle has been reignited in recent years.

And, if you’re in the mood for a good Siege; along the lines
of Savannah in the American Civil War; or even a relatively minor one; then the
Siege of Syracuse in 413 BC will surely fit the bill.

In short, there would be much to be learned from reading
this book. But the details are not as important as the overall pattern which
emerges from the subject. Namely; that wars are fought over, and about, fairly predictable
things; such as global power; religion; and even trade issues. The importance
of knowing this cannot be understated.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia article about the book I
have not read. There are more links there to take you on a journey that will
make you understand that the more things change, the more they remain the same.